Changed user account

[Guest]

I restarted my computer today and my desktop came up with only half of my
usual icons. I could not access my documents and the settings for internet
explorer and outlook were gone. It was almost as though I signed into a
different user profile. Although this computer does not have and never has
had more than one user account. In seaching, I found under Documents and
Settings the administrator folder, the all users folder, downloads, owner,
and owner.50029860439. The owner folder has my correct files, settings etc.
but the computer only starts up using the owner.50029860439. How do I get
back to using the correct documents and settings folder and what happened to
cause this in the first place?

 

[Guest]

How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151/en-us

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your help. All went well until I attempted to paste to the new
user profile and was given the error message: Cannot copy file: Cannot read
from the source file or disk. Do you have any help as to where to go from
here?

 

[Guest]

Sounds a lot like that copy of the data on disk is actually unusable,
corrupt, can't be saved. A backup, if it exists, is about the only
alternative.
I think it was the day I learned the meaning of the acromym RAID that
backups really got thru to me. A "Random Array of Inexpensive Disks."
Inexpensive, i.e. replaceable. The mirror set lets you lose one, and still
retain the data. Great Theory, harder in actual practice Sorry it didn't go
well for you.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your help. I do have backups of the critical data, but it's just
the hassle and time of restoring all the settings, minor files, etc. Do you
think that I could try to copy only some of the folders, for example the
"Favorites" and then continue in that fasion until I find the corrupted
folder? Or, would it be risky to do that?

 

[Guest]

You saved the data when the profile was working. I would guess it would all
be good.

 

[Guest]

Thank you, for all of your excellent advise. I did copy my "favorites" and
some sub-folders from "my documents" and all seems to be working well. I did
set up my Outlook email from scratch and am not going to try to save lost
email. I will have to re-enter my contacts and calendar items in Outlook and
maybe some other minor settings, but I'm very happy to come out of this with
only those problems. My only concern now is: What caused this in the first
place, and should I worry about it happening again? Once again, THANK YOU!,
you have been most helpful.

 

[Guest]

Great news. Look over the FAST wizard for saving the profile stuff.

Step-by-Step Guide to Migrating Files and Settings
http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/mgrtfset.asp?frame=true

 

[PeeWilly]

I am new to this forum resource and already excited about the possibilities.
I have a User Account problem and frankly, don't know how to post it to the
general forum community for assist. PROBLEM: My original User account on
this machine ONLY, has a problem with the MSN embedded file somewhere within
XP that links me to the MSN server when I sign in to my email account. MSN
suppoert team is useless. After much time running me through their scripts,
they tell me it is a windows problem. I finally gave up and created a new
User account and wish to transfer User account info i.e., ICONs and
application links to the new profile before I delete the old profile. Is
this possible? If so, tell me how.